Adam Smith International, the top aid contractor for the U.K. Department for International Development, has announced that four executives will step down as part of a major package of reforms in response to investigations into misuse of proprietary information and allegations that it fabricated beneficiary testimonials. While the IDC acknowledged that beneficiaries signed off on all testimonials, the committee raised concerns that ASI was too heavily involved in drafting the documents, and the IDC found evidence that ASI pressured beneficiaries with the possibility of lost funding.
Three founding executives — Andrew Kuhn, Amitabh Shrivastava and Peter Young — and the Executive Chairman and Founding Director William Morrison will retire, according to a press release. The company will also transition to becoming “an enterprise focussed on social impact.”
The company will begin investing “a significant percentage of net earnings” in developing countries through a newly established foundation. The model resembles that of the social enterprise Crown Agents, another DFID supplier that invests a portion of its profits in development initiatives through the Crown Agents Foundation, investing the rest back into the social enterprise.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
